This sequel to the famed Icebreaker was so cute! Though I wasn’t sure about the choice of main character based on his role in the first book, I quickly came to care so much about him and the relationship he built with his love interest. I will say, I did enjoy the first book a bit more than this one, but it was a fun time nonetheless!

I've really enjoyed the Maple Hills series and all the characters in their friend group. I loved Russ and Rory's relationship for many reasons: their chemistry, their vulnerability, their flaws and insecurities. Russ needing a pep talk from his friend to be able to talk to Aurora at the party where they met was adorable. I found both Russ's family issues and Rory's family drama to be very real and relatable. I could appreciate how their families shaped them and created some emotional baggage, and that the two of them were able to overcome more and face their families together. Other things I loved: the summer camp setting, the text chain with Russ and his friends, the "big sister" relationship between Jenna at camp and Aurora. My only critique would be that the romantic conflict/tension part of the book was very, very short. I suppose this book focused more on rifts between family members than strain between the protagonists.

As others have mentioned, shoutout to Xander for being a hilarious and supportive roommate and I would totally read his story.

Hannah Grace knocked this sequel out of the park. After falling in love with Stassie and Nathan in Icebreaker, staying in their world and following Russ and Rory felt like putting on my favorite sweater. I absolutely loved the depth and dimension of these two characters. Their family issues were both realistic and fleshed out, and I couldn’t help but feel such deep empathy for their situation. Plus forced proximity and forbidden romance?? Incredible. I ate this up.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC!

Thank you to the publisher for the eArc.

I didn’t really like Icebreaker but still wanted to give the author a second chance, and I’m glad I did!

I found that a lot of the problems I had with Icebreaker (Fluffy scenes feeling to repetitive, feeling bored by the main conflict) weren’t an issue in Wildfire and it feels like the author is growing into her writing style a bit more. The banter between Aurora, Russ, and all of their friends was one of my favourite parts of the book. If you love a found family dynamic this is definitely for you. Aurora and Russ’s relationship was also sweet, and the chemistry between them felt natural making it easy to root for them. I also appreciated that the spice was well done without feeling like it was added in just to be there.

One thing that I did find to be a bit distracting was the dialogue during heart to heart moments between Russ and Aurora. It felt a little forced/scripted in a way that didn’t feel entirely natural to the characters.

Overall, I will definitely check out this author’s next book and will recommend this to anyone looking for a fun summer camp romance!

I read this book not long after I finished Icebreaker so the characters were fresh in my mind. I really enjoyed the story. I appreciated that there wasn't a lot of drama. I like how the characters from Icebreaker show up in this novel too. It was a sweet story and I highly recommend it. I can't wait for Hannah Grace's next book.

AHHHHHH!!!! This was incredible. It was so good from the very beginning. The spice was top notch but it was so sweet and tender at the same time. It was just incredible. You'll need a cold shower after this one.

This book is perfectly sweet and spicy, and I loved every minute of it.

Russ and Aurora meet and have an amazing night together. They meet again when they realize they are both counselors for the same summer camp. With rules against fraternizing can they resist the draw they have towards one another all summer, or will they chance losing their jobs for a second chance?

Both Aurora and Russ are amazingly sweet characters that you just can’t help rooting for. They fit perfectly together and are actually good for each other. Watching their development throughout the book was wonderful. Also, the spice…oh the spice was *chef’s kiss*. This was my first Hannah Grace book, but it absolutely won’t be my last. I can’t wait to see what comes next at Maple Hills.

Wildfire is one of those reads that is blowing up TikTok right now so I had to give it a look - phew was it smokin'! Really enjoyed this story and the spice too!

A great romance. I actually liked it even better than the first book in the series. The characters were relatable and charming, and the spicy scenes were perfect.

THIS BOOK! It was everything I wanted it to be and more. I am so impressed with the character development, plot, as well as the trauma-informed approach to a very serious and relevant topic in this book. Being someone who has experienced very similar family dynamics, this book took me on an emotional journey I was not expecting. I would recommend to peers as well as students.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me this ARC.

This book started off really promising. Who doesn't love a book that takes place at a camp...and from the perspective of counselors, not campers, made it a little different. But, considering the main character's stated that they "needed this job" and wanted to "work on [them]self" it seemed really weird that neither did their job much at all, and instead just snuck around the whole time, pawning their work off on their coworkers. I just couldn't get over that glaring issue with the plot.

SUCH A FUN BOOK! I was really hoping this would live up to the hype of icebreaker and it SO did! i absolutley adored russ and rory's story!! they were both so vulnerable and eager for love but so careful with each other's hearts. i sped through this because i truly didn't want to leave their romance. hannah grace continually proves that she is a writer to look out for with addictive, honest, and brave love stories! SO excited for the next!

Wildfire is the second installment of the series and better than the previous one. This series is an excellent college romance containing all the elements of romance, friendship, and angst.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC! I read Icebreaker and loved it so I knew Wildfire would be amazing as well. Such a wonderful story, 100% recommend this series.

Wildfire, by Hannah Grace, drew my attention in and never let it go. I was left wanting more when I turned the last page. Grace continues her Maple Hills story introducing readers to Aurora and Russ. I felt like I was on their journey listening to them share their stories, as I followed them from their meeting to summer camp days (which reminded me of my own summer camp days). Their relationship builds as they spend ten weeks at camp, and I really felt like I got to know the two protagonists along with their friends. I could imagine the campfires, lake swims, hikes, and sneaking around. Grace also tackles family issues with grace and dignity, capturing the struggles many parents and their children go through. We all have secrets and have to learn to trust others to see our true selves and recognize we are not alone. That message came out strong through the story of Wildfire. Thank you @AtriaBooks and Netgalley for gifting me with this ARC.

While I did personally enjoy Icebreaker by Hannah Grace, it was too "spicy" of a book to recommend to my students. Wildfire would fit in to that category, however I enjoyed Icebreaker much more overall. This story was nice for seeing some of the same characters, however it fell a little flat for me.

Every reader has a unique experience while reading a book. Typically this experience is based on the effect the book has on them, which then defines the relationship that they develop with it and the space it occupies in their hearts. Some books are emotional reads that the reader may only ever read once, but that stays with them for the rest of their life; some are comfort reads that are read again and again, until the pages know the mark of the reader’s fingers. Some books are little more complex, requiring the reader to take multiple breaks in between…demanding introspection and thought.

To me Wildfire was exactly that. Demanding many breaks and lots of thought, Wildfire was an emotional and an intellectual experience, within which I was sifting through all my memories, past relationships, and those of others I know, trying to understand Aurora and Russ. I can’t recall a time before this that I related to the male protagonist of a story first, so it was initially confusing that I couldn’t understand the female protagonist the same way. This resulted in me taking a pause at around 34%, trying to comprehend why I was struggling and began dealing with all the notions I had about the way the characters, their past, and their struggles were written.

Hannah Grace has certainly chosen a difficult theme to tackle, one that may take the reader aback a bit initially. However, the writing has so much heart, which I think is Wildfire’s biggest strength. What I may have found difficult in the beginning was greatly overshadowed by the way Grace’s words evoke a sense of warmth and comfort that kept me coming back no matter what. Grace’s writing style gentles the rough edges of the characters and slowly cracks them open to show the heart of their pain and the strength in their vulnerabilities.

The way this book was planned really played to the strength of the plot, the characters’ personalities and pain. As mentioned in the synopsis, the characters share an intimate night with one another and part ways immediately only to meet again at a summer camp as colleagues. The large part of the plot is the characters healing, revealing their scars and painting galaxies around them and finding beauty in one another and themselves; however, there’s a subtler underlying theme that Grace talks about that takes up a lot of the emotional real estate in the book. The breakthrough moments we witness within that theme were sometimes hard to believe and I loved that Grace writes them that way.

Thinking back, I can tell now that the way the characters feel about themselves through the book is how we feel about them too. When the book begins the characters are struggling, feeling the disconnect within themselves, coping, misunderstanding themselves and internalising failures and pain. But as the book progresses, there’s a wonderful transition that simply comes from spending time with the kind of people that are a balm to our soul. The kind of people that don’t trigger our pain, but soothe our wounds. I absolutely enjoyed falling in love with Aurora. The more complex of the two, Aurora was a young woman striving to find herself, to feel good about herself and maybe find the person she can do all that with…be all that with. Russ, a gentle giant, was the golden-retriever magnet that was not hard to immediately love. His pain and struggles were easier to understand and relate to and he’s likely to steal a reader’s heart from the very beginning.

The secondary characters were aplenty. Both Aurora and Russ had separate social circles and friends, and a shared one that existed within the camp. This was my first Hannah Grace book and even though this is the second book in the Maple Hills series, it reads fairly well as a standalone. However, all of Russ’ friends I presume were already introduced in Icebreaker (Maple Hills, #1), because they were the only characters we weren’t introduced to. The characters closest to Russ were clear but the next circle merged a little bit. While it didn’t take away from the experience, reading the books as the series intends would possibly add to the joy.

The lack of unnecessary drama or third-act breakups and the presence of sweet, lovely characters with lots of funny and emotional moments certainly uplift the book. I did feel that this book wasn’t as deep as I would have wanted it to be given the nature of the themes, however despite that I would rate Wildfire a solid 8 out of 10. The many many highlighted passages on my Kindle throughout the book certainly attest for it.

Wildfire by Hannah Grace was such a perfect book. If you loved going to camp every summer or wanted to know what camp was like this book is IT. I loved the friendship between all the characters and how well they engaged with each other. Aurora and Russ are adorable and not unlikeable in any way. You are rooting for them the whole book. You get cute dogs named after fish, a scary bathroom incident, rule keeping, rule breaking, and so much more. I cannot wait to read her next book and Hannah Grace has become an instant must read from here on forward.

I loved this book so much. I appreciated that while it was still set in the same world as Maple Hills you could read it as a stand alone. The character depth and growth was deeper in this books than the first one and allowed me to really fall for Aurora and Russ. I’m looking forward to the continuation of the series!

Hannah Grace’s writing is just so easy to get into. Everything flows nicely and you just get caught up in the words. Aurora and Russ were great together. I love the we’re great together. I love the way they way their backstory issues were balance with the present day romance. However, I wouldn’t describe her books exactly as fluffy comfort reads like it says in the blurb though. This is new adult steamy romance, similar to Meghan Quinn. And just like Meghan Quinn, she’s bound to be really popular.